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What covenants did I make at baptism?

When we were baptized, we entered into a covenant with God. We promised to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, always remember Him, keep His commandments, and serve Him to the end. We renew this covenant each time we partake of the sacrament.

Prepare yourself spiritually

What do you remember about your baptism? How have your baptismal covenants influenced your life?

How might you help the young women better understand their baptismal covenants? How can you help them strengthen their commitment to keep these covenants?

What scriptures and other resources will help the young women remember and keep their baptismal covenants?

Teaching in the Savior’s way

The Savior found unique ways to help those He taught learn and grow—ways meant just for them. He helped them discover the gospel in their own experiences. What can you do to help the young women you teach recognize how their baptismal covenants can influence their daily lives?

Share experiences

At the beginning of each class, invite the young women to share, teach, and testify about the experiences they have had applying what they learned in the previous week’s lesson. This will encourage personal conversion and help the young women see the relevance of the gospel in their daily lives.

Introduce the doctrine

Choose from these ideas or think of your own to introduce this week’s lesson:

Ask the young women to imagine that they are helping a younger brother or sister prepare to be baptized. How would they help him or her understand the promises we make at baptism? (see True to the Faith,pages 23–26).

Show a picture of a baptism (such as Gospel Art Book, 103–4). Share memories of the day you were baptized, including memories of how you felt. Invite the young women to share what they felt when they were baptized. Ask them what covenants they made that day. Invite them to list their responses on the board and add to the list throughout the lesson as they learn more about their baptismal covenants.

Learn together

Each of the activities below will help the young women understand the covenants they made at baptism. Following the inspiration of the Spirit, select one or more that will work best for your class:

Invite the young women to read Mosiah 18:8–10. What do they learn about the way we promise to treat others when we are baptized? To help the young women learn about how we lift one another’s burdens, divide them into groups and assign each group to study a section of Elder Hugo Montoya’s talk “Tested and Tempted—but Helped.” Invite each group to share what they learn with the class. Each group might make a poster of what they learn, share personal experiences as appropriate, or relate scripture stories that help teach the same principle.

Divide the class into three groups, and assign each group to read one of the three subsections of “Your Baptismal Covenant” in True to the Faith. Invite each group to plan a creative way to teach what they learned (for example, using artwork, poetry, or a game). Give them time to teach each other. Why do the young women feel it is important that they keep these covenants?

Invite some of the young women to read Mosiah 18:8–10 and others to read D&C 20:79. Ask them to look for the commitments we make when we are baptized. Give each young woman a piece of paper, and ask her to write down a difficult choice that youth face and then put her paper into a container. Invite the young women to take turns randomly picking a paper from the container, reading what is on it, and sharing some ideas of how she might remember and keep her baptismal covenants while facing these challenges.

Show a picture of the Savior’s baptism (see Gospel Art Book,35), and ask a class member to read 2 Nephi 31:4–10. Invite the young women to share examples in the scriptures that show how Jesus Christ kept His covenant with the Father (they could look at pictures in the Gospel Art Book, 36–48, for ideas). Ask them to share experiences in which they tried to follow the Savior’s example.

Invite the young women to read three paragraphs of Elder Robert D. Hales’s talk “The Covenant of Baptism: To Be in the Kingdom and of the Kingdom,” beginning with “At baptism we make a covenant with our Heavenly Father.” Ask them to look for covenants we make when we are baptized, and invite them to write what they find on the board. In what ways should being baptized change our lives? How has it changed the lives of the young women?

Invite the young women to read “Your Baptismal Covenant” in True to the Faith and identify promises we made when we were baptized. Invite the young women to watch one of the videos suggested in this outline or to read the story at the beginning of Carole M. Stephens’s talk “We Have Great Reason to Rejoice.” Ask them to look for examples of people honoring their baptismal covenants. Give the young women time to share what they learn. What do the young women feel they can do to more fully keep their baptismal covenants at all times and in all places?

Ask the young women to share what they learned today. Do they understand their baptismal covenants better? What feelings or impressions do they have? Do they have any additional questions? Would it be helpful to spend more time on this doctrine?

Teaching tip

“Excellent teachers do not take the credit for the learning and growth of those they teach. Like gardeners who plant and tend crops, they strive to create the best possible conditions for learning. Then they give thanks to God when they see the progress of those they teach” (Teaching, No Greater Call [1999], 62).

Live what we are learning

Invite the young women to consider how they will live by what they have learned today. For example, they could:

Prayerfully examine their lives to determine whether there is anything they need to stop doing or start doing in order to be more faithful to their baptismal covenants. They could then make a personal commitment to act accordingly.

Work individually or as a class on Faith value experience 4 or Knowledge value experience 4 in Personal Progress.

Share with the young women what they will be studying next week. What can they do to prepare to learn? For example, they could read a talk, watch a video, or study a scripture related to next week’s lesson.